It's happening all over the city, and Phinney Ridge is hardly exempt. Unit by unit, complex by complex, mid-rise multiple dwelling structures are lining our main district streets, cutting off sunlight, creating wind tunnels and sucking street life out of the neighborhood.

Now comes a thinly disguised effort to cram more units into bigger spaces. Rick Barrett of the Seattle Community Council Federation passed along this whistle-blowing effort by the association to draw attention to the bureaucratic sleight-of-hand.

"Actually this is a total rewrite of all of the development standards for all the multi-family zones, a complete change in the comprehensive plan," the SCCF blog notes. "Most important, it destroys the consensus reached after a long process in 1988 and 1989, when the city rewrote the code to deal with ugly, excessively dense conditions created by the city's 1980's attempt at an experimental code. The 1989 process took over a year and had an enormous amount of citizen input. Now the planning staff proposes to bring back the very problems that caused the 1989 rewrite—and even worse—to break all the promises made to communities who agreed to take Urban Villages."

The Phinney Ridge Community Council has yet to take an official position on the rewrite. But PRCC board meetings have raised the issue of future zoning "crampification" and President Irene Wall has suggested that any changes in the land code should be considered in tandem with the city's planned updates of its many Neighborhood Plans.

"If anyone waited 90 minutes to catch the No. 5 bus today (in the snow), you know that our infrastructure – including transit, sidewalks and drainage – is not sufficient to support hundreds or thousands of new households," Wall observed.

Rick suggests writing and/or calling the City Council with your concerns. The issue here is simple, folks: Public input. I was surprised, scanning the Department of Planning and Development's Web site, to find that a number of focus groups and public meetings have already been held. I bet none of them were under the heading, "Cramming more people into tighter spaces on YOUR favorite street."

We need a high-profile, public airing of density and housing policies before proceeding further with our "green" mayor's grand cram-n-jam scheme of taller condos, scrunchier apartment complexes and skinnier townhouses. (How does building boomerism equate to reduced greenhouse gases?) Take a look for yourself, then help rattle the cages of the Council.

Some links:

Andrew Taylor, our Miller Park colleague, has a great rundown on the flap.

City Councilmembers:

Tim Burgess 684-8806

Sally Clark 684-8802

Richard Conlin 684-8805

Jan Drago 684-8801

Jean Godden 684-8807

Bruce Harrell 684-8804

Nick Licata 684-8803

Richard McIver 684-8800

Tom Rasmussen 684-8808